


Roommates

by IStillBelieveInLucasNorth



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Businessman!Thorin, Human!Smaug, M/M, businessman!Thranduil, modern!AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-31
Updated: 2013-03-31
Packaged: 2017-12-07 01:25:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/742549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IStillBelieveInLucasNorth/pseuds/IStillBelieveInLucasNorth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kili finds himself staying with his estranged uncle and has no idea what to possibly expect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Roommates

**Author's Note:**

> I have done quite a bit of editing to the first chapters, and this is their finished and combined form. I highly recommend re-reading since I published the first two chapters originally without editing for some reason unknown to myself. 
> 
> Once again, I hope you enjoy and I’ll have the second chapter up soon. I swear it on my very soul.

Day One

The house is cold and dark, lit only by the yellow light of the chandelier above the entryway. Already Kili is beginning to regret this decision. With his savings, he could have gotten a flat in the city, but it was too late to leave now. His brother nor his uncle would hear any of it. With a deep sigh under his breath, Kili sets his duffel bag down on the bench near the door, waiting for someone to greet him. It had been nearly ten years since he’d last set foot in this house, and all he could remember was the smell of furniture polish and the constant, nervous turning of his stomach.

“Hello? Uncle?” He calls, crossing his arms over his chest and moving towards the doorway to his right. It is a parlour, featuring plush red chairs, a fireplace, and a hutch full of glasses and alcohol. Well, that might make his stay a little more interesting…

“Who’s there?” comes a voice from the top of the stairs climbing up to the second landing, and the open corridor overlooking the entryway. Startled, Kili spins around to find who must be his uncle watching him with that unforgettable disapproving scowl.

“Uncle, it’s me…” Kili frowns. Had he not been expecting him? It was only two days ago that they arranged his arrival.

“Ah, yes. Kili, of course.” Thorin murmurs, although his terse tone doesn’t falter.

There is a moment of clumsy silence between the two.

“I suppose I should show you around. You were just a child last time you visited…” His demeanor falters for half a moment into something indiscernible. Kili perceives it as muted sadness. The young man finally nods, focused on his uncle. “Your room is on the second floor.” Thorin mutters, gruffly, gesturing for Kili to follow him.

The second storey is equally dark, the sconces in the hallway struggling to more than the surrounding garish wallpaper and assorted framed canvasses of long-dead relatives. How has his uncle’s eyesight survived this long?

The floorboards creak under Kili’s weight as he follows Thorin to the right. Kili hadn’t remembered how expansive his uncle’s estate actually was as he counts several doors that they pass before stopping finally at what, to Kili, is an entirely random room. When the door opens, they are both greeted by a dismal room, featuring a four-poster bed and an antique dresser. “I figured you were bringing some of your things with you, so I wanted to make space.” Thorin attempts to explain, an undertone of embarrassment about the sparse furnishings. The older man can only hope that his nephew doesn’t pick up the lie in those words; the tapestries and lamps and old nightstands had sold for decent prices after all.

“Yeah, I guess. Just a couple things.” Kili says, stepping into the room. It’s rather large, with what looks like an en suite bathroom. The window, clouded with layers of dirt and grime, looks over the hedge maze and the circular gravel drive.

“Feel free to move into another room if you don’t appreciate the view.” Thorin explains without sympathy.

“It’s fine.” Kili says, eager to end this painfully uncomfortable conversation. It’ll be like having a surly roommate, he tries to reassure himself, knowing that his uncle prefers to keep to his own business.  
________________________

After a few hours of moving and arranging and unpacking, Kili’s room is starting to resemble the room at his late mother’s small house in the city. As he gazes around at books situated nicely on the bookshelf borrowed from another room, his bow and its case are nestled safely under the bed, and his clothes on dreadfully expensive-looking wooden hangers in the closet.

Kili grimaces when there is a knock at his door. _So much for the reclusive roommate theory_. After he opens the door, Kili is allowed a thorough survey of his relative. Thorin’s frame appears to have shrunk, but Kili can only ascribe that to how tall he himself grown these last ten years. The black hair has grown past Thorin’s shoulders, curling, laced with premature silver. Wrinkles in his forehead and around his eyes underline both his stress and growing age. However, those blue eyes are as violent as ever.  
“I figured you would be hungry, so I made us some dinner.” He fumbles over the words. It’s true that Thorin has little experience considering the needs of others, but this first attempt at parenting is pathetic.

“Yeah, sure…” Kili trails off, mostly to oblige him.

“Then, I’ll see you down in the dining room in a few minutes.” And with that, he closes the door, a little harder than he probably intended. Kili can falls onto the full, down covers, sending up a cloud of dust. Fili was going to love to hear about this.  
__________________________

The meal Thorin prepared is an improvised dish: chicken over rice with overcooked mixed vegetables. The young man is in shock. The last time Kili had eaten at this long dining table, there had been waiters, cooks. Now, the only other company is a layer of dust coating the dark wood. The once beautiful dining room looks run-down and the wallpaper is sagging. The fireplace looks like it hasn’t been lit in several years although a pile of ash remains beneath a half-burnt log.

They eat mostly in silence, which appears to suit both of them just fine.

As Kili ponders the degradation and decay of the room and house, Thorin finally succumbs to his own nerves. “I keep the kitchen well-stocked and you can eat whatever you find.” His eyes fall on Kili, who’s just finishing forking the rest of the rice into his mouth. He only nods and they are both struck, simultaneously, in the privacy of their own thoughts by the irony of the situation. Where Kili once feared the wrath of Thorin, his uncle now only fears his own failures as a guide for his nephew.

“Just do your dishes when you’re finished.” He adds, sliding his empty plate away and leaning against the high-backed, wooden chair.

“Yeah. I know.” Kili resists the urge to groan. What the hell does he think he is, eight again?

Thorin catches the tone, based on his glare, but only continues. “You can go wherever you like about the house, although you must avoid the study. At all times.”  
Kili nods, moving to stand up, when a gesture from Thorin stops him.

“I’m not good at this whole… parenting shit.” He mutters, sounding no less gruff than usual. The language surprises Kili though, who’s at that stage where adults swearing around him is still kind of cool. “You’re old enough to take care of yourself, but I doubt my sister would’ve wanted you to be on your own in the city.” The mention of Dis softens his tone slightly. “So, we’re both going to have to make this work.” It’s less of statement and more of a personal affirmation.

“Alright.” Kili says, standing up. “I get it, Thorin. So, let’s just stay out of each other’s way.”

Thorin hesitates for a moment, acting like he’s going to object, but finally, he can only nod his agreement. They both take their plates into the kitchen and wash up in silence.

__________________________

That night Kili is flipping through a book, laid on his bed, freshly showered and pyjama’d. He can’t help but think to himself when he finally turns off the light for the evening that, unlike his first assumptions, this place wasn’t going to be his hell. Rather, it is his purgatory, and frankly, that almost seems worse.

 

Day Four

School is only two weeks away and here I am, wondering around the hedge maze, trying not to bash my head into a wall from boredom, Kili thinks to himself. This is the first time venturing about the acreage of the estate since he first arrived three days earlier. The morning is dreary with mist and clouds. That’s how it always is out in the countryside.

And the hedge maze seemed like a more challenging diversion than his books, since as far as he could tell, there was nothing resembling a range where he might practice his archery. No doubt his aim was getting rusty after the last several weeks unsharpened.

The maze twists and turns about in the fog, the unkempt bushes reaching out to pull at Kili’s jacket and jeans. He and his older brother had tried to solve it when last they visited, but it had proved impossible and it took them nearly an hour to find their way back. Their mother had much to say about that at the time.

Once again, Kili is overwhelmed by the desire to see his brother again. They hadn’t so much as talked for more than a few minutes over the phone, especially since his term at the university had already begun.

Kili rounds the corner and stumbles upon the coveted center of the maze. He might have been excited but for the figure that sits hunched over a leather notebook on the stone bench. There is a steaming mug of… tea, perhaps, beside him. Maybe if Kili moves quickly and quietly, he might not be spotted.

But Thorin catches the young man’s eyes easily, as if he’d been expecting him. “I didn’t think kids your age ever got up this early.” He says, his tone more relaxed than usual. It catches Kili off-guard.

“It’s only six.” Kili mutters indignantly, glancing up at the sky. The sun is smothered by the clouds above, although a bit of yellow shines through, making the fog glow in an ethereal way.

“I see.” Thorin trails off, closing the book with a soft thwap and setting it aside before taking a drink. He wants to say more, it’s obvious, he just can’t find the right words. But his nephew beats him to it.

“So, you come out here every morning, or what?” The younger man approaches. There’s another bench across the clearing from Thorin’s. Behind it sits a dead fountain, cracked and painted with dried algae.

“Give or take.” His uncle shrugs, looking up at Kili as his nephew sits down across from him.

“I’ll remember that next time, then.”

Thorin only frowns, taking another drink and the silence continues.

“Hey, is there anywhere where I can shoot?” Kili finally asks, now that he has his uncle’s undivided attention.

Thorin raises an eyebrow before Kili explains. “I do archery” is all he says as an explanation.

“Oh. Back behind the house, there are some woods. No actual targets, but I doubt the trees will mind.” He pauses. “How long have you been into archery?” Kili recognizes it as genuine interest, which both surprises and pleases him.

“A couple years now.” Kili replies, cracking his knuckles one by one, a habit reflecting boredom and anxiety he picked up in his childhood.  
Thorin watches Kili as he does this, making a mental note of it. The silence continues.

“When does school-“

“What were you writing-“

They both begin at the same time and then quickly fall silent. Thorin looks particularly puzzled by the whole thing, until Kili allows him to continue.  
“When does school start for you again?” Kili is surprised that he’s forgotten so quickly. His uncle seems to have lost that edge that he remembered. Where he had once been a reliable businessman, now sits a disheveled hermit.

“Two weeks.” Kili whispers, only glancing up at him for a moment.

“I see…” The older man stands. “Be, uh, careful when you shoot.” And then he is gone before Kili can say anything otherwise.

 _Well, this is bloody hopeless_ , the young man thinks to himself.

The mist is dissipating and the sun is peaking its way through the clouds to shine down on the hedge maze, and the once-lush clearing. The flowers that surround the circular area have all but rotted away into the dirt.  
____________________________________

It’s not quite midday when Thorin looks out the window of his study in the east wing to see his nephew nocking an arrow and firing at the distant trees. The path of the arrow arcs elegantly to land in one of the trunks and Thorin believes he can feel the impact of the metal in the bar before Kili pulls another arrow from the quiver on his hip. It’s surprising how naturally he moves, the wooden recurve little more than an extension of his body.

The sun has come out finally and Kili has pulled off his jacket to reveal a simple dark t-shirt. His hair has been pulled back in a half ponytail to keep the hair out of his eyes. And

Thorin can’t help it as his attention travels to Kili’s strong shoulders as he pulls back to let fly another arrow. It’s unbelievable how quickly he seems to have grown, already a man.  
  
Reluctantly, the older man pulls his eyes away from the image before him to turn back to the glass of brandy he had been nursing on his desk and the piles upon piles of dusty papers that he had meant to file about a week ago. His ‘business associates’ had been hounding him day in and day out about the state of his holdings, which was beyond dismal. The phone was laying on its side across the room in the corner, the receiver off the hook. There was no dial tone, not after Thorin had torn the cord out of the wall.  
He picked up the snifter and brought it to his lips to take a sip, and again, his eyes traveled to the form of his nephew. For just a moment, he could forget about the future, and just watch Kili’s motions, hypnotized by his radiance.

**Author's Note:**

> And that’s not tea. It’s coffee with Irish cream. Trust me.


End file.
